Pain in the right lung

Pain in the right lung indicates an existing problem in the body. And it is not always a respiratory disease. Pain can be caused by neurological diseases (neuralgia), digestive pathology, bone problems (osteochondrosis).

So, let's take a closer look at the types of pain in the right lung. These can be attacks that intensify when turning the body or making sudden movements, deep breaths, or with coughing thrusts. Sometimes, simultaneously with attacks of pain, the patient is bothered by attacks of dry cough, difficulty breathing, pallor, cold sweat, weakness, low blood pressure, cyanosis of the face and fingers, shallow breathing.

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Diseases that cause pain in the right lung

Pleurisy is a pulmonary disease, namely a pathology of the pleural sheets or pleural cavity. It can be both an independent disease and a result of chronic pathological processes in the lungs. Pleurisy is classified as dry, exudative or purulent. It usually affects one side of the chest.

Right-sided dry pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleural sheets on the right and the deposition of fibrin on their surface. A patient with right-sided dry pleurisy complains of pain in the right lung during deep breathing or coughing, bending and turning the body. Most often, the pain is localized in the area of the lower ribs on the right, along the lateral projections of the chest. In the evening, subfebrile fever persists, the patient is bothered by sweating, his breathing is shallow and rapid. Pain attacks are caused by movement of the pleura, therefore, when ill, the patient instinctively lies down on the painful area and tries to be as still as possible, thereby reducing the pain in the right lung.

Right-sided exudative pleurisy is an accumulation of various types of exudate in the pleural cavity on the right. This pathology occurs with tuberculosis of the pleura and lungs, as well as with some types of pneumonia. Pain in the right lung, with exudative pleurisy, bothers the patient at the very beginning of the disease, while the fluid in the pleura has accumulated little. Along with pain, difficulty breathing in the affected area, attacks of dry cough are observed. In the affected area, the doctor can listen to a special noise - the noise of friction of the inflamed pleura. Gradually, as the fluid in the pleural cavity accumulates, the pain subsides, but this in no way indicates recovery. The patient feels heaviness in the chest, complains of shortness of breath, dry cough. During a visual examination, smoothed or protruding intercostal spaces can be detected, palpation reveals a limitation of chest excursion, vocal tremor is not carried out.

Pneumothorax is a disease characterized by the entry of air into the pleural cavity.

Pain in the right lung can be caused by right-sided pneumothorax, which can be spontaneous (occurring without apparent reason), traumatic (due to chest trauma) or iatrogenic (due to the appearance of foreign bodies in the bronchi or lungs – tuberculosis, tumors, abscesses, ruptured cysts).

Spontaneous pneumothorax usually occurs in tall, thin people between the ages of 10 and 30. Smoking increases the risk of spontaneous pneumothorax by approximately 20 times (depending on the intensity of smoking).

Pneumothorax manifests itself as sharp pains in the lung, increasing with physical exertion or increased breathing, due to the mobility of the lungs. At the same time, the pain attacks are long-lasting, the patient's condition progressively worsens - weakness, pallor, cold sweat appear, blood pressure decreases, the face, fingers and toes turn blue. With the listed symptoms, the patient needs emergency care.

Right-sided pneumonia is an inflammation of the lung tissue. Pneumonia is usually of infectious origin. Late diagnosis and delayed treatment put the patient's health at risk, even to the point of death.

The main symptoms of pneumonia are a sharp rise in temperature, cough with sputum, pleural pain, and in the case of right-sided pneumonia, pain in the right lung. During examination, the doctor may note harsh breathing, shortening of the percussion sound, increased vocal tremor, and crepitant wheezing. Fluorogram and radiograph will show darkening in the affected area.

Osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine is a degenerative change in the thoracic vertebrae of the spinal column (in the intervertebral discs). In the case of thoracic osteochondrosis, the symptoms of pain are manifested by the type of intercostal neuralgia - pain can be given in the area of the ribs both towards the shoulder blade and towards the sternum. When palpating the chest in patients with thoracic osteochondrosis, local pain is found in the area of the exit of the spinal nerve. According to characteristic signs, it can be distinguished from pulmonary diseases by the absence of cough, shortness of breath, elevated body temperature.

Right-sided intercostal neuralgia is irritation or compression of the intercostal nerves.

Intercostal neuralgia is characterized by very strong sharp, piercing, aching, burning, dull pain in the rib area, which imitates pain in the right lung. Attacks occur periodically, usually during inhalation and are sometimes accompanied by muscle contraction, severe tingling in the chest, and sweating.

The main causes of the disease can be: chest trauma, draft, osteochondrosis, physical exertion, prolonged stay of the body in an uncomfortable position, hypothermia, etc.

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What to do if you have pain in your right lung?

If you are concerned about pain in the right lung, you should immediately contact a therapist to diagnose the cause of the pain and methods for eliminating it.

The primary and most common means of diagnosing chest organs is fluorography or radiography. Fluorography helps detect pneumonia, tuberculosis, pleurisy and other lung pathologies. If fluorography rules out lung disease, you should consult a neurologist to rule out vertebrogenic pain (pain associated with pinched spinal nerves).